Did you know that making your own Dutch chocolate letters is really not that difficult? All you need are two ingredients. After that, you can decorate to your hearts content!
I always like to make my own chocolate letters in the run-up to Dutch Sinterklaas eve parties (Saint Nicholas). It’s such a fun and surprising gift and especially if you’ve made them yourself. Perfect for the holiday season! Starting in October and sometimes even before that you can find store bought chocolate letters everywhere in the Netherlands. Almost every Dutch store selling anything related to food will have them for sure.
It’s not entirely clear where the chocolate letter tradition comes from but it could have something to do with the importance of chocolate in the 17th and 18th century. The Dutch chocolate companies played a huge part in making all sorts of chocolate products. And from around the 19th century chocolate letters started playing a role as little presents on Sinterklaas day.
Little Dutch kids will put their shoes out with little presents for the horse of St. Nicholas (carrots and hay, most often) and as a gift they will find a chocolate letter (or another little present) in their shoe the next morning. And while you probably won’t be able to find chocolate letters in the United States, you can make them yourself quite easily. And even if you do not celebrate Sinterklaas, I am sure Santa claus would be equally happy with these tasty treats.
BAKING TIP: Use quality ingredients when a recipe calls for few ingredients. So choose good butter and the best chocolate for these chocolate letters.
By adding creamed butter to melted chocolate, you can pipe shapes out of the chocolate that will hold their shape. The chocolate does not harden completely, but becomes deliciously creamy.
Chocolate letters made this way are also called butter letters. You can make chocolate letters in all letters of the alphabet or your own name in chocolate initials. You can use dark chocolate, white chocolate or milk chocolate to make your letters. They’re delicious as snack or with a nice cup of coffee or tea.
Once you have your chocolate letters, the best part comes: decorating! I used pepernoten (spiced cookies) and small Sinterklaas candies for decoration, but you can go as crazy as you like.
Sprinkles also look great on homemade chocolate letters. Another fun idea is to use small marzipan figures for decoration, so you can really personalize your chocolate letters.
When a recipe has only two ingredients, it is especially important to use good quality ingredients. So for these chocolate letters, choose good unsalted butter and the most delicious chocolate. I love using Callebaut chocolate but Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate bars are also a good base chocolate to use.
I like to use a star shaped piping tip for chocolate letters, for example the Wilton 1M. You can use any piping tip that you like, but the 1M is my favorite.
It can be difficult to make a nice chocolate letter without practice. You can draw a letter on paper. Place a sheet of baking paper over it so that you can still see the letter on the paper underneath, then just follow the lines.
Another fun and child-friendly idea is to decorate store bought chocolate letters. You can glue the decorations on with melted chocolate or use the butter and chocolate mixture to pipe decorative lines on before decorating. You can buy chocolate letters online and after Sinterklaas is over there will be loads of special offers for leftover letters at online shops.
Tilt your piping bag slightly and hold it just above the surface. Pipe the first part, stop squeezing the bag and pull it away in the direction you want to go. Repeat this over and over again, starting exactly where you left off. It's not difficult and practice makes perfect.
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